Dr. Mary Norton at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) has made a recent breakthrough in the research of detecting down syndrome via using the patient's blood to analyze for any abnormalities. Down syndrome is a genetic disorder which plagues 1 out of 700 women. It is caused by having abnormal cell division in chromosome 21. The side effects of Down syndrome vary, including but not limited to learning disabilities and health problems.
Dr. Norton's team over at UCSF utilized 18,995 pregnant women in their study, having 24% being high-risk, over 35 years of age, while the other 76% were low risk, under 35 years of age. After all that was said was done, it turned out that out off all the women tested 38 were diagnosed with children that had down syndrome. The cfDNA test which incorporated the blood work had a sensitivity rate of 100%, making it the ideal technique in identifying down syndrome.
I'm glad a method other than an amniocentesis can now be used to detect Down Syndrome.
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